Our first visit to Bulgaria and we ended up at this 5* hotel (5* - really)?? - The x-mas lights were turned on in september and the smell of wunderbaum and horse droppings was quite overwhelming. Anyway, we arrived late in the evening, which we had notified the hotel about, and were 'welcomed' by a very rude male-receptionist, who said that our reservation had been cancelled. We had ordered and paid for half board and a deluxe room with mountain views and we showed him all the documentation to confirm our booking. We never figured out why and how our booking was cancelled? We were shown a room in the back of the hotel by a young man with absolutely no english skills. The room had no views and we were told that due to high demand there would be no guarantee that a room with a view would be available for us the next day. After having called the receptionist at Festa Winter Palace 3 times, who repeated what he had told us, the booking team at hotels.com offered us an alternative hotel option, but not a 5 star and not half board. My daughter luckily managed to find another option at a competetive site and hotels.com accepted that solution and returned our payment. But what a bad experience for a first visit to Bulgaria. The country is very beautiful but the people have a lot to learn when it comes to customer service and attitude. Not to mention the lack of language skills, especially english. What a shame ...
